In the prior art printed products, preferably folded printed products, which have been brought into a scale formation by any previous processing stage, such as a rotary press and which are to be temporarily stored prior to the following processing stage, are passed to a winding station (with a winding-up function), where they are wound onto a roll core with the aid of a winding band. The resulting rolls are temporarily stored in vertical or horizontal manner with or without storage assistance means, such as pallets and when required are supplied to a winding station (with an unwinding function), where they are unwound and supplied in scale formation again to a further processing stage.
Winding stations for the winding up or off of printed products in scale formation are described in European patents 161569, 230677 and 281790 (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4601436, 4769973 and 4898336), assigned to the assignee of the present application, or in Swiss patent applications 791/90 and 3128/90, also assigned to the assignee of the present application. These stations are designed in such a way that they are always processing, i.e. winding up or off one roll, while a second roll is being changed. Manipulations and transportation between the winding station and store through which the product to be removed (full rolls from winding-up stations/empty roll cores from unwinding stations) are brought from the winding station into the store and the product to be used (empty roll cores for winding-up stations/full rolls for unwinding stations) are brought from the store to the winding station, are carried out with the assistance of various aids and methods and require either complicated equipment or complicated switching operations with manual work.
For example, use is made of displaceable magazines, which contain the roll core and the winding band and which are transported with the aid of a store vehicle between the winding station and store. Such magazines are e.g. described in Swiss patent 652699 or European patent 243837, assigned to the assignee of the present application. The magazines serve as movable apparatus as part of the winding station, as well as a transportation means and storage means. For changing or replacement purposes a magazine must be accurately positioned at the winding station and then serves as part of the latter. Magazines with product to be removed or introduced are transported with a transportation vehicle to or away from the store and are introduced into or removed from the latter. Such a process requires a separate magazine for each roll or roll core to be stored and a relatively large storage location is required for each magazine. However, with regards to equipment and shape no special demands must be made on the storage location and the overall store can also be formed from any random free locations which are large enough for a magazine. A large amount of space is also required in the vicinity of the winding stations, because at the time of magazine change at least two magazines must always be deposited there (cf. also description regarding FIG. 2) and the vehicle with the magazines must be maneuverable there. The working process with the magazines is not only complicated, but can scarcely be automated, but has the advantage that there is no need for a specially equipped storage area and only one transportation means has to be used between the winding station and the store, i.e. the product to be introduced and removed does not have to be "transferred" from one transportation means to another.
In order to simplify such complicated operations and make automation possible, roll changing and storing processes have been developed, in which the product to be removed is removed from the winding station by a manipulating/transportation means and is deposited on a stationary transfer mechanism, where it is e.g. fetched by a shuttle vehicle travelling on a rail. The product to be introduced is brought by the same shuttle vehicle onto the stationary transfer mechanism and is deposited there and is then brought to the winding station by the manipulation/transportation means. The latter is generally constituted by an automated travelling crane. With a corresponding design of the transfer mechanism and the shuttle vehicle it is possible with only two positioning steps on the part of the vehicle to deposit the product to be introduced and take up the product to be removed. Such processes and apparatuses are e.g. described in Swiss patent application 888/91, assigned to the assignee of the present application and in DE-OS 3602320 (Grapha-Holding AG).
Processes with stationary transfer mechanisms, manipulation/transportation means between the winding station and transfer mechanism and shuttle vehicles between the transfer mechanism and the store, which can serve several winding stations moving on a rail, compared with the aforementioned processes with magazines save a considerable number of transportation paths, numerous maneuverable and various manipulating movements and can therefore be more easily automated. However, they are more complicated with respect to the necessary equipment and in particular the storage location. The store must either be equipped with storage means similar to the transfer mechanisms, i.e. it is no longer possible for it to be formed from various locations as and when they become available and it must be accessible to the shuttle vehicle, i.e. must be close to and reachable from a rail (DE-OS 3602320). Alternatively the product to be removed and introduced must be transferred to a further store vehicle or mechanism for storage on a further transfer location (Swiss application 888/91).